


Of a Tale to Come

by forgerofdreams



Category: Dark Knight Rises (2012), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Crossover, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-04
Updated: 2012-08-04
Packaged: 2017-11-11 09:48:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/477215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forgerofdreams/pseuds/forgerofdreams
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It had started in a coffee shop.</p><p>A quick conversation, over identities, and lost loves, hers romantic, his idealistic, and had ended with a visit to a group of children that meant more to John than most anything else in the world. From that, bloomed a strange, and enjoyable friendship with a woman with more secrets than strands of hair, but who would never keep a secret from him. Least ones that mattered.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of a Tale to Come

It had started in a coffee shop.

A quick conversation, over identities, and lost loves, hers romantic, his idealistic, and had ended with a visit to a group of children that meant more to John than most anything else in the world. From that, bloomed a strange, and enjoyable friendship with a woman with more secrets than strands of hair, but who would never keep a secret from him. Least ones that mattered.

He’d been honored, knowing just how complicated, and convoluted her life was, to have that sort of trust held in him, and he did whatever he could not to betray it. Following her encouragement, he built himself up, trained day in and day out with help from the random trainer she would send his way. Sometimes he never even learned their name. They would appear in the night, spend a few weeks breaking down John’s body and building him back up again, before disappearing just as silently.

Sometimes, John would go weeks, even months without hearing a word from her. He knew she was just as busy as he was, flying across the world on missions that were so top secret, he probably wouldn’t even know if she’d been caught in the crossfire. That was why, every time SHIELD sent her out, he had Alfred track her mission as best as he could, piggybacking on SHIELD’s servers without them knowing.

Even if she didn’t know he was there, he was always keeping an eye on her, knowing he wouldn’t be much help, but it comforted him, nonetheless. There were times he went missing, though. The times he’d get too banged up by a certain villain, that he would have to disappear to recuperate. It was why he missed the day when she learned that she was finally going to be a mother.

John came back to his cave, his cave, because it wasn’t Bruce’s, not anymore, and found an irate Natasha pacing up and down the center obelisk. At first surprised, he could only send her a soft hello before she was crossing to him, and slapping him sharply across the face. A hug quickly followed the slap, crushing the breath from his chest, and causing a laughing groan to leave him as his newly healed ribs strained against her grip.

Since that day, Natasha visited him more often, then not. She was there when he would come home some nights, bleeding from more places than he could count and would help bandage them. Some nights, he would even go to bed, and wake up to Natasha wrapped around him, the woman having snuck in in the middle of the night and deeming it necessary to use him as a heater.

It was nice, to come home to a smiling face, one tinged with too many years being disappointed by everything that she came across, and being able to help wipe some of those years away every time he wrapped her up in his arms. He helped out when he could, giving her the tips and tricks he’d learned while growing up in an orphanage filled with children with not enough opportunities in life he’d grew up fast and learned how to help the girls who didn’t know how to help themselves. It wasn’t much, but really, it helped sooth some of John’s worries, to know that she was taken care of, even if it wasn’t by himself. 

Months passed, and she spent more and more time with him, the East Wing of the Bruce Manor being left to John in Alfred’s will. The old man, even after death, taking care of those that mattered most to him. She held him that night, dirt caked beneath his fingernails, and tears drenching his face, and helped him forget, at least for a little while about all of the people he’d lost in his life.

For the last month of her pregnancy, she stayed there almost full time. The manor large enough to house the pair of them, and the children of the orphanage doing wonders to brighten up her on the days things seemed to be too hard to handle.

He was there, when she gave birth. Wringing his hands in the waiting room, having been tossed out of the delivery room after taking far too many pictures and not enough comforting comments. He was there, all the same, when they rolled Natasha’s child back into her hospital room, and she was allowed to hold him for the first time since he’d been taken away to be cleaned. 

John couldn’t ever remember seeing her look as content and happy as she did in that moment. She didn’t even yell at him for taking a picture, in hopes of remembering this moment for the rest of their lives. She’d let him hold him, later, after she’d gotten enough time with holding the child that was hers and hers alone, and had been able to wipe away the tears that had escaped.

John didn’t know how long he stood there, staring down into the child’s face, but he felt his heart grow bigger in his chest as he found another place for him to reside.

Years passed, and Natasha, whenever she got tired of New York, or her multitude of other homes, would wander her way towards John’s home. Her child growing up with those of the orphanage, learning how to play and perform tricks on the others as his mother watched on in amusement. John taught him everything he had wished his own father would teach him, humility, modesty, honesty. Things he knew would carry Natasha’s child far, and what he hoped would help him grow up to be as amazing as his mother.

John didn’t know how far his attention and care to her child had affected him, until one night he came home from his construction job, the money he got from Wayne Enterprises enough to take him far, but unable to stop from helping rebuild the city he would give everything for. He’d dropped jacket by the door to the East Wing, rubbing sleep out of his eyes when he heard a pair of small feet running through the halls, a loud, “Daddy!” following in its wake.

John felt his heart stop, his eyes widening in surprise as the young child ran through the entry doors and attached himself to John’s legs, years of practice of both him and various other kids running in to him the only thing keeping him from falling over. He could hear him muttering words into his pants legs, detailing his day and all of the things he’d learned while John had been away a soft ‘daddy’ interspersed here and there. 

When he finally seemed to have wore himself out, and John had calmed down the hurried rate of his heartbeat, he reached down and detached him from his legs, lifting him into his arms to have the small arms instantly cling to his neck.

“Hey, little spider.” The soft nickname falling easily from his lips and making the bright blue eyes widen in glee. “What’s with the sudden ‘daddy’ business?”

The question made something clench in his chests as his blue eyes narrowed in childlike thought, brow furrowing as he’d no doubt seen John’s own face do a million times before. “Well. All of my friends have a mommy and a daddy and I asked Mr. Gibson about it, and he said that it didn’t matter if I only had a mommy because my mommy was special, and you didn’t really need a daddy, or at least not one bio-biolollically and he said that if I wanted I could choose who I wanted to be my daddy and he said that daddy’s are supposed to protect me and take care of me and be there with me through everything and so I chose you.” The words were spoken fast, and halfway unintelligible as they were muttered into John’s neck, his eyes growing wider as his arms tightened their grip around the child that had become such a large part of his life he couldn’t imagine his life without him.

Taking a moment to gain control of himself, he leaned down enough to press a kiss to the top of his head, muttering against the auburn locks, “I’d be honored to be your daddy, little spider.” 

It was that moment he caught a flash of movement from the corner of his eye, and he looked up to see Natasha standing in the doorway, a hand covering her mouth as a tear slowly slid down her cheek. John knew his own face was just as shocked, all of the masks the pair of them wore on a daily basis stripped away at the few faint words of a child that they cared more about than life.

He felt a faint snuffle against his neck, the child’s approximation of a snort that John knew would reveal mucus on the lapel of his shirt, but he really didn’t care right then. All he cared about were the soft words mumbled against his neck and the suddenly slumbering child weighing down his arms that John would do anything for.

“Love you, daddy.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is a crossover idea that happened because of a conversation I had with a Natasha I play with, and it took over my brain.


End file.
